PowerStruggle and SNCF

Its a mighty fine night when you get to play two new games and both are 8+ raters. The first was 'Power Struggle', the last of my Essen 09 unplayed heavies and a game i have table dodged because after five rules reads i had not progressed beyond flumuxed. This time i was lucky emough to have a PS vet to teach. And what a game! Very reminscent of 'Tribune' in the victory conditions and bonuses for leadership of divisions the game also has a short play time. There is loads going on here, beating you arch enemy, maxing on income and board power, every choice demands the weighing up of five or more factors. Whilst there are similarities with Tribune game this has got a little more going on, in that the bribery action gives a creative feel to game play. I have said this about a lot of Essen 09 games, but this time i thinks its true : this is the pick of the crop. The next 35 minutes of game time was spent on one of Winsomes 2010 Essen pack - SNCF. I thought Winsome had gone as far as possible down this route by discovering sub atomic level train 'n equity games with Wabash, however with SNCF they have found the Quark :- 2 actions build track or trade shares from the same pool as the track cubes, games over when 5 of the 6 cube pools have gone. I prefer CE but its hard to think of a recently released game that packs such a punch in 30 minutes.